JIN DYNASTY, 13TH CENTURY

Ovoid bottles of this type, with these distinctive small, ringed mouths, are termed xiaokou ping (small-mouthed bottles), and were probably sealed with a fabric-wrapped dowel and used for storing wine and other liquids. A similar bottle, also painted with chrysanthemum stems, in the collection of Dr. Robert E. Barron III, M.D., illustrated by Robert D. Mowry in Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Harvard University Art Museums, 1995, p. 165, no. 55, was subsequently sold at Christie's New York, 30 March 2005, lot 303.